


#PynchTakesVidCon

by queerwriterbee



Series: Shopping Cart Drag Racers [6]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: (so normal gansey), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bisexual Male Character, Everyone Is Alive, Everyone Is Gay, F/M, Gay Male Character, Henoah?, M/M, Makeup Artist Louis, Multi, Music AU, Nonbinary Character, Pansexual Character, Polyamory, Pynch Week 2018, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, YouTube, Youtuber AU, chengy?, czerng?, famous au, fuck idk man, history nerd gansey, i get carried away, idk noah and henry's ship name..., ok enough tags i guess, plant nerd adam, pynch - Freeform, sarchengsey, singer/songwriter/poet ronan, vlogger/skateboard enthusiast noah, youtube activist blue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 22:30:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15672582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queerwriterbee/pseuds/queerwriterbee
Summary: Normally, Ronan wasn’t really one for conventions. In his six years as a YouTube content creator he’d been invited to plenty of different cons; occasionally he would say yes (especially if it had to do with Gaelic/Celtic culture), but not nearly enough for the invitations to continue to be so consistent and persistent.Which was why Gansey was so completely floored that he’d accepted the invite to VidCon this year.“What changed?” Gansey had asked after an hour (at least) or sputtering and raging at him.“Not what,” Noah piped in, waggling his brows at Ronan. “Who.”Ronan had promptly thrown a Sprite at Noah’s head and retreated to his bedroom, not ready to endure Gansey’s questions or Noah’s knowing teasing right then-- if ever.Because Noah was right-- it wasn’t a what that had changed his mind. It was a who; a certain incredibly smart, passionate, charming in an impossibly odd and infuriating way, beautiful and elfish YouTube “The Lorax”-- aka, Adam Parrish.(Pynch Week Day 1: Famous (YouTubers) AU + Soulmate AU)





	#PynchTakesVidCon

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been in a writing slump and I've been enjoying all the new content from Pynch Week 2018 that I thought what the hell I'll make my own collection and just post them belatedly like a loser and let people deal with it. 
> 
> This is day one: Famous + Soulmates AU. Enjoy!

Normally, Ronan wasn’t really one for conventions. In his six years as a YouTube content creator he’d been invited to plenty of different cons; occasionally he would say yes (especially if it had to do with Gaelic/Celtic culture), but not nearly enough for the invitations to continue to be so consistent and persistent.    


“You just broke two million subscribers, Ronan,”  Gansey had once told him. “How can you realistically expect to continue this absence from such prestigious conventions?” 

“I’d hardly call VidCon prestigious, Dick.” 

“For someone of your line of work it is.”

And Ronan still couldn’t get over that-- that this, writing and performing music and poetry, occasionally vlogging his day to day life and collaborating with his other friends on YouTube-- was his job. He was actually making a living off this shit. Who failed to tell Mr. YouTube he was a high school dropout incapable of doing anything but dicking around with words and chords?

“Just shut the fuck up and be grateful that you have enough subscribers to get you all of these invites,” his and Gansey’s roommate, Noah Czerny, had snapped. “Some of are just barely breaking the ten thousand mark and would kill to be asked to a main stage at VidCon!” 

Ronan had rolled his eyes but didn’t say anymore. Noah was right: he was lucky to have the success that he’d had with his channel. When he’d first started it at twelve years old, it was just something fun to do while he avoided homework-- his mom and dad were already uploading his and his brothers’ music and dance competitions to YouTube, why not post his own content? Video editing was tedious but immensely rewarding once the finished product was ready and the channel gave him the motivation to finish the bits of writing on scraps of paper that he’d been squirreling away for years at that point. 

Plus, who didn’t love a good cover every now and then?

His channel had really started to gain attention about two years before. He was sixteen and his voice was finally maturing into the deep, raspy baritone that he had now and he’d garnered enough maturity (though, Declan would protest this) for his lyrics to have more nuance and depth than they had at twelve. He started out his sophomore year of high school with five thousand subscribers and had ended it with one million. He’d hit two million by the time he’d dropped out of high school in his senior year and was getting close to three million since Noah and Gansey had graduated. He only needed a couple thousand more-- which for someone with as many subscribers as he had, was nothing.

The upshot of his subscriber count could also be attributed to how much more motivated he was to post content regularly once Gansey and Noah had made channels of their own. Having other creators just as passionate about their content as you were surrounding you at all moments worked as good motivation and inspiration. 

The other two occupants of Monmouth Manufacturing had only been at the YouTube game for a little over two years at that point but had garnered quite a large (Noah’s whining notwithstanding) and loyal fanbase. This was partially due to the niche circles their channels circulated-- Gansey made five-fifteen minute videos that summarized and analyzed various historical events, their relation to the modern world, and occasionally how they could be how tied into ley line theory; Noah (also known as, “Glitter Ghost”) posted mostly videos of him doing tricks on his skateboard with absurd camera angles and always decked out in flamboyant, glittery clothing and makeup-- though it was his “STORYTIME WITH NOAH” vlogs that drew most of his audience… needless to say, Noah had some pretty wildlife stories to tell--but also because their content was just damn good shit. They took time and care to make content that they were proud of and uploaded at least once a week. Until they’d inspired a similar drive in Ronan, he’d only been uploading maybe once a month, if even that. 

The trio had only enhanced their individual and collective popularity with the collaboration videos they would make from to time-- the most notable being Ronan and Gansey’s “The Gregorian Chant: a Brief History with Gansey (and Ronan)” in which people died over Ronan’s deep, monotonous chanting and Gansey’s unbelievable ability to narrate his brief history without breaking character once, Noah and Ronan’s “STORYTIME: RONAN THREW ME OUT A WINDOW,” and the never-ending vlog series on Ronan’s channel, “Pranking Dick: a Czerny-Lynch Production.” Their fans had lovingly deemed them, “The Gangsey” because of how obviously Gansey was the leader/dad of the group (and the aesthetic appeal, of course). 

However, even as their internet fame steadily grew greater, Ronan still refused most convention invitations. 

Which was why Gansey was so completely floored that he’d accepted the invite to VidCon this year. 

“What changed?” Gansey had asked after an hour (at least) or sputtering and raging at him.

“Not what,” Noah piped in, waggling his brows at Ronan. “Who.”

Ronan had promptly thrown a Sprite at Noah’s head and retreated to his bedroom, not ready to endure Gansey’s questions or Noah’s knowing teasing right then-- if ever. 

Because Noah was right-- it wasn’t a what that had changed his mind. It was a who; a certain incredibly smart, passionate, charming in an impossibly odd and infuriating way, beautiful and elfish YouTuber “The Lorax”-- aka, Adam Parrish.

“I speak for the trees,” was his channel slogan (hence the pseudonym). He posted videos about natural phenomena from as simple as how to plant strawberries or start a community clean-up group to as complex as the evolutionary importance of arachnids or why the current taxonomy of species system was inadequate and in need of updating, and Ronan had been borderline in love with him since his first video (“I sacrifice myself: why I speak for the trees”) had shown up on Ronan’s suggested videos nearly two years prior. 

Adam’s videos hadn’t been particularly popular for the first six months or so of his time on YouTube-- garnering maybe fifty-two hundred views each (of which at least ten could be counted on from Ronan). But, then Buzzfeed had asked to feature his video series on the decline of bee populations on their site along with a small interview with him. His views had skyrocketed and subscriber count multiplied exponentially. Though Ronan was sure that there were definitely people on the channel that genuinely cared about what Adam had to say, from the comment section it was clear that much of his viewership had to do with his strange beauty and husky voice that people of all genders were as drawn to as Ronan was. Adam had once addressed this in a Q&A video saying, “I don’t care what brought you here as long as the trees and I are heard.” 

Needless to say, Ronan had fallen even harder after that video. 

Like Ronan, Adam’s viewership continued to grow in part to his collaborations with his friends that were also on YouTube: Blue Sargent--a feminist/social justice vlogger who liked to focus especially on queer and racial injustice, body positivity, and racially driven environmental injustice--and her soulmate, Henry Cheng--a “beauty guru” and queer activist vlogger with an unhealthy (in Ronan’s opinion) obsession with bees and Madonna. 

While the three neither went to the same school or lived together like Noah, Gansey, and Ronan did, they apparently all grew up in the same area and were brought together by a local queer resource center in their town (that’s right, Adam liked boys and Ronan hated himself for how much hope that gave him) run by several of Blue’s family members (who also had their own channel: Foxway Psychics). They frequently collaborated on videos together and were regularly featured on each others’ social media accounts. Ronan thought that their best collabs were the one where Blue and Adam each made up one half of Henry’s face (Adam’s side was atrocious and it made Ronan actually giggle), the best friend tag video Adam filmed with the other two while they attempted to build a rock garden in Blue’s family backyard, and of course, Blue’s “Get Ready w/ Me Q&A: Pride Edition” in which he got to watch twenty minutes of Adam’s face and body being decked out in outrageous bisexual and Native American pride paraphernalia and listen to his occasional answers on his queer experiences. 

It was after the last mentioned had been posted that Ronan finally found the courage to talk to Adam-- that is, he tweeted Adam’s video on natural sound therapy with a “dope shit” and Adam’s handle in the post body. To his shock and immense delight, Adam had replied within minutes with a tweet of his own; “Haha thanks! Maybe we should collab sometime--Gregorian chant and rustling leaves go together, right? ;)”

Ronan had, simply put, died immediately upon reading the tweet. 

That first interaction had triggered a year of online interaction via tweets, instagram posts, recommending each others’ videos and sarcastically bashing/challenging each other in their own videos. Their fans couldn’t decide whether the pair were friends or enemies, but they “shipped” them all the same. 

(Ronan would never admit how much the ship name “Pynch” made his heart flutter.)

Ronan’s initial infatuation with the strange and beautiful boy had steadily grown into genuine romantic feelings through their interactions. So, as soon as he saw the announcement on Adam’s instagram story that he would be doing a workshop with Blue on starting your own farmers' co-op and the danger of food deserts at VidCon that year, Ronan had accepted his own invite to perform and be a part of the songwriting panel at the convention. 

Adam had retweeted the VidCon announcement of Ronan’s first-ever appearance with a “Can you believe Pynch is going to be together for the first time IRL so soon? ;)” If nothing else, his acceptance was worth it for that tweet alone. 

 

Ronan, Gansey, and Noah had arrived to the convention center far too early for Ronan’s taste, but Gansey’s collaboration with TED, “How Historians Have Failed Women,” was one of the first presentations of the convention and Ronan and Noah had promised to be there to 1) set up, and 2) keep Gansey from losing his mind with nerves. 

Ronan didn’t know why he always got like this--Gansey was a natural public speaker and never failed to wow his audiences with a flawless delivery--but Gansey was an anxious anomaly so he begrudgingly sacrificed his sleep for his mess of a best friend. 

“What if we added glitter cannons to your presentation?”

“Noah, no.”

“Why not? It’ll be a visual emphasis to the sexism!”

“Noah. No.”

As predicted, the panel went without a hitch; the audience adored both Gansey and the other speaker-- Persephone Poldma, a philosophy and gender studies PhD from who knows where and much older than Gansey--the live stream of the presentation had gotten so many viewers that it had crashed for a couple of minutes in the middle, and all the questions they received from the audience were insightful and delivered kindly. 

“You always worry for nothing, Dick,” Ronan said once he’d found Gansey after the presentation.

“I’d rather worry for nothing than not worry and found out I should have,” Gansey huffed, turning up his nose and pretending that he wasn’t pleased with the comment. 

“I’m pretty sure that’s the definition of disordered anxiety,” Noah chimed in. “But, that’s ok I guess. Great job, Gans. You totally destroyed those old sexist grumpy grump historians.” 

“Not quite the words I would have used,” a feminine voice came from behind them. “But, I definitely agree with the sentiment.”

The three of them turned to see where the voice had come from, but Ronan was too distracted by Adam fucking Parrish walking his way to identify the speaker. 

Holy shit. 

Holy fuck. 

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. 

“Adam?” Ronan croaked, his body betraying him and speaking before he’d even realized he’d opened his mouth.

The other boy smirked, looking up at Ronan through his long, dusty eyelashes. God, his freckles were even more prominent in person. 

“What, don’t recognize your soulmate?” he teased. “The Pynch shippers are going to be so disappointed.” 

Ronan laughed nervously, running a hand over his buzzed skull. 

“What are you doing here? At this presentation, I mean,” Ronan asked. “It to damn early for anyone but the people who have to be here, like me and Noah, to be awake.”

Adam grinned. “Well, believe it or not this is about my regular waking time.”

“Inhuman bastard.”

Adam threw back his head and laughed-- a sound so beautiful Ronan could write a thousand poems about it and mix a million songs from the ten seconds it filled the air. 

“Blue often says I may actually be a tree instead of just speaking for them,” he replied, his smile wide as he winked at Ronan. “Blue’s actually the main reason I’m here, actually.” Adam nodded his head over Ronan’s shoulder where Blue and Henry were talking animatedly with a flustered and clearly elated Gansey. “Persephone is like, her unofficial aunt. Plus, Blue’s a huge feminist-- if you’ve seen any of our collabs then you know that.”

“Yeah, the maggot’s got a real hard on for social justice,” Ronan said absentmindedly, barely recognizing that he’d just admitted that he’d watched enough of Adam’s videos to know this about Blue.

“Oh, man,” Adam chuckled. “Don’t let her hear you call her that--Blue may be little, but she be fierce.”

Ronan huffed. “I could take her.” 

Adam just laughed. Warmth spread through Ronan’s chest and a smile across his face. 

Adam took a few steps closer, putting himself just a little too far into Ronan’s personal sphere to be considered platonic. 

“I’m really glad I caught you here,” he said softly. “I’ve been wanting to meet you since I was like, fourteen.”

Ronan gulped, his mind spinning with the implication of this statement. He was so lost in the realization that Adam had been watching him and his videos for four years, that he’d liked him enough to want to meet him for that long, that he only barely registered Adam’s calloused hand on his arm and the sharp shock and heat that the touch caused. 

“Oh.”

Ronan’s attention snapped back to Adam at the word, said quietly, breathlessly, accompanied by wide eyes and a slack jaw. Ronan followed Adam’s gaze to where their skin touched, finding a bright blooming of blues across Adam’s palm and fingers, a rich and earthen array of greens along the outside of his bicep. 

“Guess the shippers weren’t so wrong after all,” Adam murmured. 

Ronan brought his gaze back to Adam’s flushed face and the words were out before he could attempt to control their tumbling from his tongue. 

“I’ve known they were for over a year now,” Ronan winced. “At least, on my end of things.” 

Adam smiled widely, his perfectly straight teeth on display between his rosy lips. He brought his now blue hand to cup Ronan’s face. 

“They definitely were on my end, too.” 

“I HAVE THREE FUCKING SOULMATES?!”

Ronan and Adam’s heads snapped in the direction of Henry’s shout on reflex, finding their four friends all gaping at each other and with various shades of various colors now decorating their bodies in places they hadn’t before. Now accompanying the deep purple of Henry’s soulmark on Blue’s left earlobe was a honey brown and gold on the palm of her right palm, a cobalt blue one matching the palm of Gansey’s. Henry’s already purple right fingertips were now shared presence on his olive skin with a similar honey brown/gold on the knuckles of his left hand that matched the near black purple on Gansey’s and a pale, shimmering oval of silver and blue running from his right elbow to halfway down his forearm that evidently had just brushed with the left of Noah’s that was colored a deep amethyst. 

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Ronan breathed. “I can’t believe it took me this fucking long to come to a convention just for this shit to go down.” 

Adam’s quiet giggles turned his head and Ronan felt weak at the knees with how beautiful the flush across the other boy’s freckled cheeks was. 

“Your songwriting panel isn’t for another few hours right? Wanna get out of here before we’re pulled into the chaos or one of our fans sees our… our soulmarks,” Adam let out a shaky breath. “Fuck… we’re soulmates.” 

Ronan grinned and grabbed the hand that he’d decorated blue, dragging him towards the exit. 

“Fuck yes I do and fuck yes we are.”

Adam’s laugh followed him through the doors, down the hall, and rang through his head for the rest of the day. 

He was definitely going to more conventions from now on. 


End file.
